Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 - Next

Many famous, classic novels from world literature were made into films during Tinsel Town’s golden years. The villains in these great stories were almost always more intelligent, interesting and sensitive than the often dull, stiff heroes. My gaydar was always able to detect at least of hint of “kindred spirit” between my gay self and the “bad guy” tragic figures in these stories.

Examples include The Phantom of the Opera, in which an exceedingly timid and pathetic orchestra violinist worships an aspiring opera diva from afar; The Invisible Man, who is able to be himself, to walk amongst others unharmed and unnoticed; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a poor soul hated by all just because he’s different; and the all-powerful maestros who get to control and develop fabulous young talent in The Red Shoes and Svengali.

In the horror/gothic category, the very gay-acting Vincent Price and Peter Lorre lisped their way through countless grade B monster flicks. Their obvious and subversive unmanly onscreen personalities undoubtedly helped to make general straight audiences squirm with unease. Max Shreck’s vampire in the silent film Nosferatu (1922) remains one of cinema’s most frightening portrayals, due in no small part to its sickening androgyny.

In fact, the entire catalog of vampire films contains unmistakable elements of both homoeroticism and its resultant homophobia. Any viewing of movies made by the very successful horror film collaborators Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (were those two lovers or what?) can bear this out.

In classic Hollywood dramas and film noir movie, being literate, refined, idly rich, effete, well mannered, effeminate--or in other words, possessing qualities intrinsically abhorrent to regular straight guys--made one a sure candidate for villainy. Think of Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944), George Sanders as Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950) and as Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940) (even their character names sound rather gay.) There’s also Lawrence Harvey in Manchurian Candidate (1962), John Dall and Farley Granger in Rope (1948), and the whole stable of cultured, evil master spies in the James Bond 007 films.

Less refined, but at least with lots of eyeliner and a delicately sculpted mustache, we may include Akim Tarimoff as the depraved drug lord “Uncle” Joe Grandi in A Touch of Evil.

Post-World War 2 American film felt the influence of European realism and opened up a new raw, stark, frank approach to filmmaking. U.S. cinema had now come of age along side Freudian psychoanalysis. There was an "opening" of America's notorious piety--the more sophisticated, “hip” audience could handle more. The clear-cut division between good and evil, between good guy and bad guy, started to blur.

Film heroes of the era like Marlon Brando, James Dean and Montgomery Clift, (unlike their one-dimensional “John Wayne”-type predecessors), let inner, weaker, problematic sides show through. So too, film villains began to become more psychologically transparent: they were no longer simply “evil,” but revealed all manner of psychopathology.

In short, they were now “sick."

Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 - Next